AllFreeNovel
Share Us
she got a phone call after lunch, I took that as a good time to dash out of her lab and hurry down the hall to Owen’s lab. I nearly ran into Jake on his way out. “You just missed him,” he said. “He had to go to a meeting.”
“That’s okay. I’m only dropping some paperwork off in his office.”
“Cool.” He was already off down the hall, grooving to whatever was on his iPod, before he could think to ask why paperwork required a shopping bag. I spread out the cheesy plastic Santas and silvery tinsel on the big table in the middle of the lab so it would look like I was in the middle of decorating, then found that book again and flipped to the conveniently placed Post-it.
It was like looking for information on what to do about the common cold in a medical journal. I imagined I’d need years of study to properly understand what I was reading, but it did appear that there were ways of making a magical immune susceptible to magic. There was a whole list of chemical names, and none of them sounded familiar. It looked like once the drug was in the person’s system, they could then have spells done on them to really solidify the loss of immunity.
Well, that was great, but I wasn’t taking any drugs, not even the occasional aspirin. I hadn’t changed my routine or eaten or drunk anything new—not that I was aware of. The loss of immunity had hit before the secret Santa game started, so it couldn’t have been caused by any treat that had been left for me. Short of closing myself in a plastic bubble, there wasn’t much I could do until I figured out what was being done to me.
I put the book back on the shelf, then put up the decorations around the lab as quickly as I could. I stuck an anonymous secret Santa greeting note on Owen’s office door before hurrying out. Ari was still on the phone as I passed and didn’t seem to see me.
I was out of breath when I returned to my office. I didn’t see how our spy could stand the stress. The sneaking around for a good reason, with no consequences other than maybe embarrassment and a good laugh, was difficult enough. I’d nearly had heart failure from sneaking a peek at a book that Owen probably would have loaned me willingly, even if he would have asked me why I wanted it.
I rewarded myself for a successful mission by slipping out of my sensible business shoes, taking the red shoes out of their box, and putting them on. I felt the usual surge of power, like I could rule the world if I really wanted to. I’d always laughed at Gemma when she said it, but I was starting to believe that the right pair of shoes actually could change your life.
I kept them on for the rest of the day, and as a result, all I had to do to get ready for going out was touch up my makeup, add a little sparkle, and change my blouse. I got down to Isabel’s office, where we’d agreed to meet, and found it empty. Rod then appeared in his doorway, and I realized I must have become accustomed to his illusion when I didn’t have to pause and remember who he was.
He gave me a low whistle and said, “You look great. You shouldn’t have any trouble attracting attention tonight.” A warm glow spread through me at his praise. Maybe I wouldn’t have to go out to get attention. All the attention I could want was right there in front of me. Then he looked more somber, jolting me out of what had to have been the effects of his attraction spell. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
I forced myself to focus. “Sure.”
He gestured me into his office and said, “Have a seat, please.” He perched on the edge of his desk, and I sat in the guest chair, crossing my legs like I was modeling panty hose. His eyes were serious enough to snap me out of it once more. It would have helped if he’d turn that spell off even for a second, but I guessed he didn’t realize it was affecting me—unless he was deliberately affecting me. “This is probably none of my business, and I’m sure I’m totally out of line. I also want to make sure you know I’m not saying this in any official capacity, but rather as a friend. I’d like to think that you’re my friend, and Owen has been my best friend for a very long time. But be careful, please.”
Goose bumps grew on my arms, and I momentarily forgot all about the effect Rod had on me. “Careful of what?”
“I know you and Owen have been spending a lot of time together lately.”
“We come to work together in the morning, and we’ve gone to dinner together once. That’s not exactly a lot.”
“For Owen, it is. It’s enough that I feel like I ought to warn you. Owen’s a great guy. But he’s also dangerous. I don’t think he’d do anything deliberately to hurt anyone, but he could easily do it without meaning to. He’s also, well, he doesn’t have much experience outside his lab. I don’t want you getting hurt, but I’m more worried about him getting hurt, and what might happen if he did.”
I thought I understood where he was going with this. “You mean, you don’t want me to break his heart so that he then goes insane with grief and blows up the island without realizing that’s what he’s doing?”
He nodded. “Yes, something like that.” I’d been joking, sort of, but he wasn’t smiling at all. “I’m glad you understand me.”
I might not have had a lot of romantic experience, having had only a handful of real boyfriends, but I’d grown up with brothers and all their friends, so I knew a thing or two about men. My experience had taught me that when a man warned a woman away from another man, it usually had more to do with jealousy than with real worry about that other man, whether or not the guy actually realized it. While I didn’t doubt that Rod was worried to some degree about Owen, I had the strongest sense that he was actually jealous.
That didn’t mean he was really interested in me himself. But if he went to the effort it took to mask his appearance with an illusion, and with his best friend being a total knockout naturally, it wasn’t far-fetched to think he might have issues about me seeing him as he really was and comparing him with Owen. Could that have been his motive for spying on Owen and tinkering with my immunity, if he was the one who’d done it?
Regardless of whether or not he was the culprit, I knew enough about men not to accuse him of jealousy to his face. Instead, I said, “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“I don’t?”
“Think about it. You’ve known Owen a long time, right?”
“Since we were kids.”
“So you’ve seen him around someone he was interested in. And if I read him the right way, I’d guess that when he’s interested in someone, he freezes entirely and can’t speak to her.”
“That’s pretty much it,” he agreed.
“Well, he talks to me. Often, and quite comfortably, at that. I’d say that’s a pretty good sign he’s got me filed in the ‘friend’ category. Or, given the way he seems to organize things, I’m somewhere in the middle of the ‘friend’ pile.”
He brightened considerably at that, even as my heart sank when I recognized the truth in my own words. My “like a sister” curse had struck again. “You’re probably right. I guess I overreacted,” he said.
“No problem,” I said with a shrug. Then I realized this was my chance to probe him a little bit about his involvement. “While I’ve got you here,” I said as casually as I could manage, “I just need to take care of a few details in my investigation. Formalities, you know. First, how often do you come to the office on weekends?”
He frowned. “Are you talking about when you saw me nearby last Saturday?” It wasn’t much of a reaction. He didn’t seem surprised by my question, and he didn’t go overboard to act like he was shocked that I’d dare ask such a thing. In fact, he acted the way you’d expect an innocent person to when asked a question like that.
